Upcoming Canvas Changes
New Canvas User Interface (UI): July 9
On July 9, 2016, the New Canvas Interface will no longer be a Feature Option in Canvas and will be enabled for all Canvas users as a standard feature. Enabling the New UI affects the user interface for the entire Canvas account.
In this production release (June 4), instructors can differentiate inactive student submissions in SpeedGrader; they also experience a minor change in functionality when assigning students to a moderated assignment. Admins can view excused assignment grade changes in the Grade Change Log, view the names of developer keys in a user’s page views, and take quizzes if they are enrolled in a course as a student. Several other small changes have been made to various feature areas.
The production release notes also include fixed bugs.
Canvas New Feature Screencast (2016-06-04)
Next release schedule:
- Beta release and notes: June 13
- Production release notes: June 20
- Production release and documentation: June 25
Production release notes indicate Canvas updates that will be included with Saturday’s release and are subject to change. New features may differ from those available in your beta environment. Learn more about the Canvas Release Schedule.
- New Features
- SpeedGrader
- Updated Features
- Admin Tools
- Assignments
- Quizzes
- Users
- Other Updates
- Calendar
- Dashboard
- Files
- Notifications
- Pages
- People
- Reports
- Syllabus
- Platform/Integration
- APIs
- Assignments
- Authentication
- Fixed Bugs
New Features |
SpeedGrader
Inactive Enrollment Notice
SpeedGrader shows a notification when instructors view inactive student submissions. This change helps instructors know if a submission was assigned to a student whose enrollment status became inactive. Inactive student submissions can still be graded in SpeedGrader, but students do not receive any notifications about their assignment and cannot view course grades.
If a student does not have a submission for the assignment, the student may have been deactivated before the student could submit the assignment.
Updated Features |
Admin Tools
Excused Assignments Grade Changes
The Grade Change log displays grade changes for excused assignments. When an instructor excuses an assignment for a student, admins can view the excused assignment as part of the log.
When an instructor excused an assignment for a student in a course, the Grade Change Log was not displaying the change even though a change was shown using the API. Canvas code has been updated to show excused assignments in the Grade Change log.
Assignments
Moderated Grading Add Reviewer Button
When an instructor moderates an assignment for grading, the Add Reviewer button is disabled until at least one student is selected for moderation review.
When a instructor set up an assignment for moderation and clicked the Add Reviewer button with no students selected, the page generated an error message. Canvas code has been updated to disable the Add Reviewer button until at least one student has been selected.
Quizzes
Admin Roles and Course Quizzes
Users with an admin role are able to take a quiz if they are enrolled in a course as a student. However, if an admin is not enrolled in a course as a student, the admin can only preview the quiz.
When an admin was enrolled in a course as a student, the admin permission would override the student permission and would not allow the admin to take a quiz. Admins were only able to preview quizzes, which affected admins who were enrolled in courses for training purposes. Canvas code has been updated to allow admins enrolled as students in a course to take quizzes as a student.
Users
Page View Developer Key Names
In Page Views, admins whose institution use developer keys can view the name of the keys' associated apps. This change helps admins differentiate user access tokens from web sessions and identify the associated developer key, such as shown when a user accesses and participates in a course using the Canvas by Instructure app.
Other Updates |
Calendar
Events Pagination
To improve performance, the Calendar supports pagination for events. The default page size is 50 events, and events are rendered as each page is loaded.
Dashboard
Recent Feedback Display Extension
The Recent Feedback section shows recent feedback for assignments updated in the last four weeks instead of two weeks.
Files
Move Icon Replacement
The Files toolbar includes an updated Move icon. Functionality has not been affected.
Notifications
Observer Role Updates and Scheduling
Observer roles are supported in Scheduling notifications. Observers can receive notifications on behalf of their linked students (students they are observing).
When the Appointment Signups notification is enabled, observers receive notifications about appointment slots that have been published for signup or appointments that have been changed.
When the Appointment Cancellations notification is enabled, observers receive a notification if an appointment group is deleted.
When the Student Appointment Signups notification is enabled, observers receive a notification if a student they are observing signs up for an appointment or cancels an appointment.
Pages
Course Navigation Breakpoint Width (New Canvas UI)
Canvas includes a breakpoint of 1140px. When the Content Navigation Menu is expanded, this change collapses the page layout and prevents page overlap with sidebar content. The page is not affected if the Course Navigation Menu is already collapsed.
Sidebar Scrolling (New Canvas UI)
In Canvas pages that includes sidebars, sidebar content is retained at the top of the page. For longer pages, content does not scroll along with the page.
When a user scrolled down a page with long sidebar content, the sidebar jumped up and down the page. Additionally, in the legacy UI, after scrolling the content would stick to the bottom of the page. Canvas code has been updated to suspend content scrolling for pages in the New Canvas UI.
People
Sidebar Button Consolidation
The People page sidebar buttons have been consolidated into a drop-down menu at the top of the page. Depending on user role, button options may include View User Groups, View Prior Enrollments, Student Interactions Report, and View Registered Services.
When a user resized the browser window to a smaller size, the People sidebar buttons overlapped the user Settings icon, rendering the icon unusable. Canvas code has been updated to consolidate the sidebar buttons into a Settings menu and remove the sidebar from the People page.
Profiles
Profiles Page Updates
For institutions using Profiles, the Profile pages have been updated to realign content and incorporate the styles used in the New Canvas User Interface. No functionality has been affected.
If Profiles has been enabled for an account, the Profiles link can be viewed as part of the User Account Menu in Global Navigation. Profile enhancements can also be viewed in a course People page by clicking the name of a Canvas user.
Reports
Provisioning Report SIS Column
Provisioning Report CSV files include a Created by SIS column showing if an enrollment was created by an institution’s student information system.
When an admin ran the Provisioning report, the report pulled data from Canvas without using SIS information. If a user had multiple enrollments where one was created using using the Canvas interface, the API displayed the user enrollments with empty section IDs. Full batch imports were not removing these enrollments created in the UI. Canvas code has been updated to display a Created by SIS column in the Provisioning Report showing the origin of an enrollment. Enrollments not created through the SIS are shown as false.
Syllabus
Syllabus Page Updates
When instructors view the Syllabus page, the Edit button has been moved out of the sidebar, which matches the placement and behavior in other Canvas pages. The Syllabus list also includes icons to differentiate assignments from events. No functionality has been affected.
Note: Currently the Syllabus only displays the Assignments icon. Icon placement for the other assignment types are being reviewed and may be included in a future release.
Platform/Integration |
APIs
For details about using Canvas APIs, please see https://www.canvaslms.com/policies/api-policy
Courses API
When updating a course in the Courses API, users can set the storage quote for the course using the course [storage_quota_mb] parameter. To make an API call, the user must have the Manage storage quotas account permission.
Assignments
Homework Submission Placement
Content item support is extended to Canvas LTI homework submission placement. More details are included in the Content Item LTI documentation.
Authentication
SAML Deprecated Endpoint
The endpoint /saml_consume is deprecated, and IdPs should direct to /login/saml. All institutions using SAML need to refresh their metadata from Canvas against production (which lists both endpoints) and then test against beta (which now only uses the new endpoint). After this change is deployed to production on June 4, institutions may refresh their metadata again without worrying about the old endpoint.
Fixed Bugs |
Accessibility
Announcements
Blank external feed error messages can be read by screen readers.
Assignments
The Post Grades to SIS button can be toggled by keyboard users. The state of the button can be read by screen readers.
Courses
The Course Checklist retains focus on each task when selected. Users can read about the task and then choose to begin the task.
Discussions
When a discussion is closed for comments, focus is retained on the discussion. If the discussion is unpinned and removed from the Pinned Discussions list, focus is retained on the previous discussion. If there is no previous discussion, focus is placed in the list header.
Files
The Search field includes a label to identify the field to screen readers.
When a user selects all files, the state of the Select All checkbox can be read by screen readers.
Grades
When a student clicks the Show Saved What-If Scores button or Revert to Actual Score button, screen readers can read a message indicating the scores have been changed. Focus is also retained on the button.
People
The Everyone group tab can be accessed by keyboard users.
Quizzes
Quiz headings are shown as a heading level 1 (H1), and instructions are shown as a heading level 2 (H2).
Settings
When Student View is enabled, Canvas alerts screen readers on every page in the course until the user leaves Student View.
Admin Tools
Excused Assignments Grade Changes
The Grade Change log displays grade changes for excused assignments.
Explanation: When an instructor excused an assignment for a student in a course, the Grade Change Log was not displaying the change even though a change was shown using the API. Canvas code has been updated to show excused assignments in the Grade Change log.
Analytics
Course Analytics and Zero Lowest Score
In course analytics, the table view shows zero as the lowest possible score.
Explanation: When instructors graded students with a zero, course analytics showed the lowest score value in the table view as N/A instead of the zero. Canvas code has been updated to retain scores of zero as valid entries in course analytics.
APIs
Accounts API
Account date restriction settings can be updated through the Accounts API.
Explanation: When an admin tried to update account\[settings]\[restrict_student_past_view] or account\[settings]\[restrict_student_future_view], the API was not updating the date field. Canvas code has been updated to update date restriction settings via API.
Assignments API
The Assignments API includes updated documentation for the External Tool Tag attribute.
Explanation: When a user tried to view documentation for the External Tool Tag attribute, the documentation didn’t include information about how to format the parameters correctly. Canvas code has been updated with accurate documentation for the External Tool Tag attribute.
Content Exports API
When exporting a discussion with a rubric, the rubric is included as part of the export package.
Explanation: When a user tried to use the Content Exports API to create a course export, passing in a parameter to only export the discussion topic did not include the rubric in the import package. Canvas code has been updated to include rubrics when a graded discussion topic is selected for export.
Assignments
Section Due Date Validation
Differentiated assignments can be created for an assignment as long as one course section is active.
Explanation: When an instructor created an assignment with differentiated due dates, a due date could not be created for an active section if the assignment also included a concluded section with the Users can only participate in this course between these dates checkbox selected. Canvas code has been updated to allow assignments to be created as long as the assignment includes one active section.
Moderated Grading Add Reviewer Button
When an instructor moderates an assignment for grading, the Add Reviewer button is disabled until at least one student is selected for moderation review.
Explanation: When a instructor set up an assignment for moderation and clicked the Add Reviewer button with no students selected, the page generated an error message. Canvas code has been updated to disable the Add Reviewer button until at least one student has been selected.
Authentication
SAML and ADFS 3.0
When a user logs out of Canvas with an institution using SAML and ADFS 3.0, the Canvas session is terminated.
Explanation: When a user logged out of Canvas with an institution using SAML and ADFS 3.0, Canvas was passing the logout request but the session was not being terminated by the ADFS 3.0 server. Canvas code has been updated to pass the SAML name ID attributes to ensure ADFS 3.0 servers receive the logout location request.
Calendar
Mini Calendar Drag-and-Drop
Dragging and dropping an assignment or event in the mini calendar saves the new date.
Explanation: When a user tried to drag and drop an assignment or event in the mini calendar, the updated date was not saving in the calendar. Canvas code has been updated to retain the new date for an assignment or event dragged to a new date in the mini calendar.
Conferences
Course Home Page Conference Invitations
Users can join a conference from the Course Home Page.
Explanation: When a user tried to join an in-progress conference from the Course Home Page invitation, the conference link generated a page error. Canvas code has been updated to link the conference invitation to the Conferences page.
Course Import
Moodle Content Links
Links from imported Moodle files are retained in Canvas.
Explanation: When a user imported a Moodle file that contained links within pages, the content links were breaking after import. Canvas code has been updated to include a more recent Moodle dependency.
Module Re-imports
If a module is deleted in a course, re-importing the module restores the module.
Explanation: When a user imported a course, deleted a module, and then re-imported the course, the original module was not being restored in the course. Canvas code has been updated to allow deleted modules and items to be restored when re-importing a course.
Dashboard
Help Icon and IE 11
In Internet Explorer 11, the Course Navigation Help icon is positioned above the Help text.
Explanation: When a user viewed Course Navigation in Internet Explorer 11, the Help icon displayed a large gap between the Help text. Canvas code has been updated to adjust the Help icon spacing in Internet Explorer 11.
Discussions
Header Toolbar Overlap and Firefox
In Firefox, the Subscribe button does not overlap the sidebar content.
Explanation: When a user viewed Canvas in Firefox and scrolled down the Discussions page, the Subscribe button in the header toolbar overlapped the sidebar content. Canvas code has been updated to retain the sidebar content at the top of the page.
Enrollments
Course Invitation Previews
If an institution does not allow invitation previews, the course page does not show that the course invitation is pending.
Explanation: When an institution disabled course invitations, and a user was invited to a course, clicking the link to the Course Home Page showed that the user still had to accept the course invitation. Course invitations allow a user to view the course before accepting the course invitation. Canvas code has been updated to remove the pending invitation banner if course invitations are disabled.
Custom Account Roles
Enrollments can be deleted for a deleted custom account role.
Explanation: When an admin removed a custom account role, enrollments for the custom account role were not able to be deleted and created an error. Canvas code has been updated to allow enrollments with deleted roles to also be deleted.
ePortfolios
ePortfolio Link (New Canvas UI)
The ePortfolio link only displays in the User Navigation Menu if ePortfolios is enabled for an institution’s account.
Explanation: When the ePortfolio setting was disabled for an institution’s account, the ePortfolio link was still displaying in the User Navigation Menu. Canvas code has been updated to only show the ePortfolio link if the feature is enabled for a user’s institution.
ePub
Slashes in Course Names
ePub files can be generated if a course name includes a slash.
Explanation: When a course name included a slash, users were not able to generate an ePub file because the ePub was treating the slash as a directory that did not exist. Canvas code has been updated to compute slashes in file names and allow ePub downloads.
Grades
Submissions Upload Gradebook Link
After re-uploading an assignment submission, instructors can click the Back to Gradebook link.
Explanation: When an instructor downloaded assignment submissions from the Gradebook and later re-uploaded the submissions, clicking the Back to Gradebook link included an anchor tag in the URL and caused the Gradebook to render incorrectly. Canvas code has been updated to correct the Gradebook link.
Percentage Grades and Decimal Rounding
Percentage-type grades in the Gradebook and SpeedGrader always round to two decimals.
Explanation: When grades were entered into the Gradebook and SpeedGrader as a percentage grading type, the grade display was being rounded to the nearest tenth. Canvas code has been updated to round percentage-type grades to the nearest tenth as in the Gradebook Total column and Gradebook CSV file.
Assignment Details Rounding
The Assignment Details average score rounds to two decimal places.
Explanation: When an instructor opened the Gradebook and viewed details for an assignment, the average score was rounding to a whole number. Canvas code has been updated to round to two decimal places for Canvas consistency.
Student View and Admin Observer Role
Admins can view Test Students in the Gradebook in courses where they are also enrolled as an observer.
Explanation: When an admin was enrolled in a course as an observer and tried to view the Gradebook, the page generated an error message. Canvas code has been updated to only display Test Student data in the Gradebook to admins enrolled as observers.
Inactive Students and Instructor Roles
Instructors can view the Grades page for inactive students.
Explanation: When an instructor tried to view the Grades page for an inactive student, the page generated an error message. Canvas code has been updated to allow instructors to view the Grades page for students who are inactive in a course. Inactive student access has not been affected as students cannot view grades in courses with inactive enrollments.
Login
Password Resets and Multiple Accounts
When a user has multiple Canvas accounts and requests a password reset, the password reset email is only sent from the requested account login page.
Explanation: When a user generated a password reset request and was enrolled in courses located in several accounts through a trust setup, each account generated a password reset email for the user. Canvas code has been updated to only send password reset emails from the requested account login page.
Notifications
Grades
Notifications are not sent to students in courses concluded by student term access dates.
Explanation: When a course was set in term dates specifically set for student access, if an instructor graded any assignments in the course, the course was still generating grading notifications for students. Canvas code has been updated to not send notifications for student- term-concluded courses.
Outcomes
N Number of Times
The N Number of Times calculation method saves the specific numerical entry entered for the calculation.
Explanation: When a user created or edited an outcome using the N Number of Times calculation method, the outcome was showing the number of times as five, regardless of the actual numerical entry. Canvas code has been updated to retain the number of times entered for the calculation method.
Question Bank Alignments
For outcomes aligned to a question bank, the Learning Mastery Gradebook shows mastery calculated with the percentage level set for the question bank.
Explanation: When an instructor created outcomes with a specific mastery level, aligned them with a question bank, and set the question bank with a specific percentage for mastery, the Learning Mastery Gradebook was not factoring the question bank percentage mastery weight into the outcome mastery score. Canvas code has been updated to scale aligned outcome scores against the question bank percentage. For example, if an outcome with a mastery of 3 is aligned with a question bank set at 70% mastery (the default is 60%), a score of 60% displays the alignment score as 2.57/3, while a score of 70% displays as 3/3.
Pages
Text-based File Downloads
In file previews, text-based files are downloaded instead of being rendered in the browser.
Explanation: When a user previewed a text-based file such as .html and .txt in a course, clicking the link in the preview window opened the file in the browser instead of downloading the file. Canvas code has been updated to download text-based files from the files preview page.
Sidebar Scrolling (New Canvas UI)
In Canvas pages that includes sidebars, sidebar content is retained at the top of the page. For longer pages, content does not scroll along with the page.
Explanation: When a user scrolled down a page with long sidebar content, the sidebar jumped up and down the page. Additionally, in the legacy UI, after scrolling the content would stick to the bottom of the page. Canvas code has been updated to suspend content scrolling for pages in the New Canvas UI.
People
Read SIS Info Permission
The Read SIS Info permission checks user access according to course context and user role..
Explanation: When an instructor with the course permission to Read SIS Info was enrolled as a student in a second course, the instructor was still able to view SIS IDs in the second course. Additionally, some subaccount admins were unable to view SIS IDs even if the permission was enabled and the subaccount admin was enrolled in the course as an instructor. Canvas code has been updated to check SIS permissions for users against each course context.
Sidebar Button Consolidation
The People page sidebar buttons have been consolidated into a drop-down menu at the top of the page. Depending on user role, button options may include View User Groups, View Prior Enrollments, Student Interactions Report, and View Registered Services.
Explanation: When a user resized the browser window to a smaller size, the People sidebar buttons overlapped the user Settings icon, rendering the icon unusable. Canvas code has been updated to consolidate the sidebar buttons into a Settings menu and remove the sidebar from the People page.
Quizzes
Admin Roles and Course Quizzes
Users with an admin role are able to take a quiz if they are enrolled in a course as a student. However, if an admin is not enrolled in a course as a student, the admin can only preview the quiz.
Explanation: When an admin was enrolled in a course as a student, the admin permission would override the student permission and would not allow the admin to take a quiz. Admins were only able to preview quizzes, which affected admins who were enrolled in courses for training purposes. Canvas code has been updated to allow admins enrolled as students in a course to take quizzes as a student.
Reports
SIS Export Report
The SIS Export report only returns items created or modified through SIS.
Explanation: When an admin ran the SIS Export report, the report also pulled data without SIS information. Canvas code has been updated to only return items created or modified through an institution’s student information system.
Provisioning Report
Provisioning Report CSV files include a Created by SIS column showing if an enrollment was created by an institution’s student information system.
Explanation: When an admin ran the Provisioning report, the report pulled data from Canvas without using SIS information. If a user had multiple enrollments where one was created using using the Canvas interface, the API displayed the user enrollments with empty section IDs. Full batch imports were not removing these enrollments created in the UI. Canvas code has been updated to display a Created by SIS column in the Provisioning Report showing the origin of an enrollment. Enrollments not created through the SIS are shown as false.
Settings
Course Link Validator
The Link Validator retrieves a URL’s page information if the header status request is not received. Additionally, the page text includes a note that some unresponsive links may be inaccessible from Canvas servers by are still valid for students.
Explanation: When a valid link was added to a course, the Link Validator marked them as broken if the header status request did not receive a response about the validity of the page. Canvas code has been updated to retrieve the URL’s page information if the header request is not received. Requests can also be unresponsive if a page includes multiple page redirects. The Link Validator page also includes a note that some unresponsive links may be inaccessible from Canvas servers but are still valid for students.
User Settings
User Passwords
If users are allowed to change their passwords in Canvas, the page generates an error message if the password is not confirmed.
Explanation: When a user is allowed to change his or her own password, or when an admin changed a password for a user, the confirmation password field was not required and the page generated a silent error message. The password appeared to save but was not updated in Canvas. Canvas code has been updated to require a password confirmation before the new password can be saved in Canvas.
